European wagonload research project launched

REPRESENTATIVES of 10 European companies and research institutions came together in Hannover on September 10 to launch a three-year research and development project that aims to improve the performance of single-wagonload railfreight operations.

Viable Wagonload Production Schemes (ViWaS) has a budget of €4.2m, of which €2.9m will come from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development.

The objectives of ViWaS include:

optimising the performance of last mile operations, including the opportunities for containerisation of freight and the use of hybrid locomotives

improvements to wagons and swap bodies based on the flex freight system developed by Wascosa, Switzerland

intelligent and inexpensive telematics for wagons

development of an IT interface for wagon-related telematic data, and

new management concepts for rail hubs, focussing on cost-effective bunding of combined and single-wagon traffic

"The challenges to single wagon traffic have grown sharply in the last few years," explains HaCon's project leader Mr Niklas Galonske. "With ViWaS we are looking to develop trend-setting solutions for economically-viable wagonload operations."